Wireless communications systems have been implemented for many years to provide long-range communication. Typical wireless communication systems provide for the transmission of data between antennas that have line-of-sight, such that long-range communications typically involve interposing transceivers or repeaters. However, some long-range communications involve scattering of radio frequency (RF) communication waves, such as from the troposphere of Earth's atmosphere (e.g., troposcatter communications). An upper bound of throughput of a data communication system is mainly related to the receive signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The SNR and the modulation and coding (MODCOD) scheme of the communication system determine the actual throughput and the quality of communication. At a given SNR, if various MODCOD schemes are available, one MODCOD scheme can be selected among them so that the throughput can be maximized while meeting a certain quality requirement. The amount of SNR for the received signal at a receiver can mainly be based on the characteristics of the communication channel, such as propagation loss, multipath fading, and/or a variety of other factors. As an example, in some communications environments, such as for a troposcatter channel communications system, the dynamic fading characteristics of the channel can cause a dynamic change in SNR.